The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

Synopsis: September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows—and their magic—to the world of Fairyland Below. This underworld has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September’s shadow. And Halloween does not want to give Fairyland’s shadows back.

Fans of Valente’s bestselling, first Fairyland book will revel in the lush setting, characters, and language of September’s journey, all brought to life by fine artist Ana Juan. Readers will also welcome back good friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. But in Fairyland Below, even the best of friends aren’t always what they seem. . . .

Review: I was really curious to immerse myself in the second volume of Fairyland after a first magical and colorful volume.

A year has passed since the end of the previous novel and September is now 13. But this girl hopes for returning to this magical country to see her friends she is missing so much. Yet no one comes to get her and nothing is possible. In any case until, according to two people, she manages to find a way to return to Fairyland. However, the world she left is different than it is now… Indeed, it seems that every person living here is losing his shadow disappearing in Fairyland below, causing them to lose powers and skills they might have before. But September is determined to understand what is happening and to go in that other universe to change the process. This is how she discovers that her shadow Halloween has since become the queen and is stealing all the shadows of the world to leave them the opportunity to live the life that they can actually have. But September is determined to oppose this and in this environment, she will discover the shadows of her friends and will understand that they are not exactly like the characters she had learned to love. Oh yes because they act quite differently and are quite complementary of the real ones. But while our heroine shares a new adventure, accompanied by some shadows but also by a new character, a dodo fun to explore, it could be that she realizes that nothing is all white or black and her research may well have a very different result.

I took a great pleasure in discovering this new novel and in returning once again with September in Fairyland. We can only appreciate all the characters that we discovered once and still hope to see them again in the next book. It’s pretty interesting to see that the girl keeps a cool head and does not try to be considered for something she’s not. She does not want to be queen or a princess but only herself and nothing else. Her confrontation with the shadows of the world fascinated me because it is true that everything is very different here but I was curious to see the differences with the original characters. Also I found the end really well done and everything was really touching. I’m curious to see what the author will present later anyway!

But that’s not all because we also have some bonus at the end of the book as Catherynne M. Valente visits this world she created and thus have a discussion with Ell that affects us particularly. It’s very touching to see her conversation with one of her creations.

In any case it was a very nice novel full of magic and characters we love. A very nice surprise once again and a story we should not hesitate to share.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve indulge in some elaborate fantasy read. This one sounds like something my kids would enjoy more, though. Great review, Melliane. Shows us that you don’t have any problems reading works outside of your normal reading choices. 🙂

“She does not want to be queen or a princess but only herself and nothing else.”

LOVE that Melliane! It’s so nice to come across a young female character who’s happy with who she is and just wants to continue to be that girl:) I’ve heard good things about this series, glad to know you’re a fan of it as well!

Yay! I am glad that this one did not suffer from the second book syndrome, Mel. I am always always afraid whenever I am about to read part 2 because that’s usually the point wherein you can gauge whether the series is going to be a train wreck or not. Glad to know that this wasn’t the case with this book.

I still haven’t read these, although I promised a friend I would ages ago! I really need to do something about it, I keep hearing such wonderful things. I love the titles, the setting sounds fabulous and I’d surely appreciate the bonus material.